China captures 3 more suspects in station attack

BEIJING -- Police have captured the final three people suspected of involvement in a slashing rampage at a train station in southwest China that killed 29, state media reported Monday.

Authorities have said the attack in Kunming city that also wounded 143 was carried out by separatists from the far west region of Xinjiang.

Citing a statement from the Ministry of Public Security, the official Xinhua News Agency said that a "terrorist gang" of six men and two women led by a person identified as Abdurehim Kurban was responsible for Saturday evening's attack.

Xinhua said police shot and killed four of the attackers who used knives to slash at crowds of people and captured an injured female suspect at the scene.

Xinjiang is home to a simmering rebellion against Chinese rule by some members of the Muslim Uighur (pronounced WEE'-gur) population, and the government has responded there with heavy-handed security.

The brief Xinhua report did not identify the ethnicity of the eight or say how the final three suspects were identified and captured.

Clashes in Xinjiang between authorities and Uighurs over the past year have left scores dead, but Saturday's assault happened more than 1,500 kilometers (more than 900 miles) to the southeast in Yunnan province, which has not had a history of such unrest.

Another unprecedented attack attributed to Uighurs happened last October in Beijing. Three assailants and two tourists were killed in the attack at Tiananmen Gate.

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